Sacramento Digs Gardening: Dig In: Garden Checklist for week of Aug. 26

A Mardi Gras rose looks especially vibrant in the diffused light created by our smoky haze. (Photo: Debbie Arrington)

Enjoy last days of summer, start seriously thinking fall

Enjoy these mild final days of summer as Sacramento temperatures settle into the low 80s most of this week.

That’s ideal weather to get outside and enjoy your garden – and get started on fall.

Hazy conditions continue due to wildfire smoke settling into the Central Valley. While breezes make air quality bearable, that haze is helping to moderate temperatures.

It’s also creating unusual light for outdoor photography, casting an orange glow. Take some pictures of your garden, especially flowers with yellow, red or orange blooms or plants with variegated foliage.

Before you snap those shots, dead-head roses and pinch off dead flowers from perennials and annuals. They’ll look better – and may keep blooming a little longer.

Other items for your to-do list:

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year. Water deeply.

* Apples and pears are ripening earlier than normal. That means those trees are also dropping fruit now. Any “worms” you may see likely are codling moth larvae. Pick up and dispose of those infected apples and pears. It will cut down on outbreaks next year.

* Plant onions, leaf lettuce, peas, radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, bok choy, spinach and potatoes directly into vegetable beds.

* Transplant cabbage, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower as well as lettuce seedlings.

* Transplant cool-weather annuals such as pansies, violas, fairy primroses, calendulas, stocks and snapdragons.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

* Directly in the garden, sow seeds of California poppies, clarkia and African daisies.

CHECKLIST FOR THE WEEK

Your weekly checklist of activities in the garden.

Keywords:

seeds Sacramento garden chores codling moth fruit trees weather fall planting gardening checklist garden photography perennials flowers

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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